


Merely a Madness

by orphan_account



Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-06
Updated: 2014-07-06
Packaged: 2018-02-07 18:24:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1909152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Romeo fears he'll be alone forever, but Race has some reassuring words for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Merely a Madness

Katherine had walked away several minutes ago, but when Romeo looked up from browsing the morning paper, Jack was still standing in the exact same spot they’d stood talking, still wearing the same daffy grin on his face.

He felt a pang of longing in the pit of his stomach.

He wasn’t jealous for Katherine’s sake - his crush on her had hardly been more than a brief infatuation, and he’d moved on quickly enough. But he was jealous of what they had. He wanted a love like theirs.

The problem was, Romeo had absolutely no idea where he should even begin looking.

“Hey, Race?” He asked, leaning forward a little to try to prevent the other boys from overhearing. “Have you ever been in love?”

Race snorted. “Yeah, sure. Loads of times,” he said dismissively. He turned his attention back to the stale biscuit he’d been trying to crack open.

Romeo was not deterred. “So?” He prompted, scooting forward until he’d invaded Race’s personal space completely. It had always been easy to pester information out of Race. “Who with?”

“Reporters who write good headlines,” Race drawled lazily. “Customers who overpay and let you keep the change.” A grin spread across his face, smooth as butter. “Jockeys who win after I’ve bet on ‘em, a nice deck of cards with none of ‘em missing, the lodging house door at the end of a long day, a full plate of food I don’t gotta pay for—”

“Is that all?” Romeo interrupted, wrinkling his nose.

Race made a face back at him. “Is _what_ all?”

“Don’t you want … I dunno, don’t you …”

“Well? Spit it out.”

Romeo flushed. “Don’t you ever wish you had, you know, a great romance? Like the kind in stories and … and plays and things?”

He’d expected Race to scoff at him, but all he did was laugh and reach over to ruffle Romeo’s hair.

“Nah,” he shrugged. “I mean, that ain’t to say I’d turn one down if it happened to fall into my lap or somethin’, but in the meantime? Suppose I’d rather live each day on a handful of pennies than starve to death sitting around waiting for my fortune.” He closed his eyes and took a long drag from his cigar, the perfect imitation of a scholar who’d just bestowed the wisdom of his years upon the rest of the world.

Romeo rolled his eyes and stood to leave. Race was better with numbers than words, in Romeo’s opinion.


End file.
